The Condemnation of Blackness

Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America

By: Khalil Gibran Muhammad

Narrated by: Mirron Willis

Lynch mobs, chain gangs, and popular views of black Southern criminals that defined the Jim Crow South are well known. We know less about the role of the urban North in shaping views of race and crime in American society.

Following the 1890 census - the first to measure the generation of African Americans born after slavery - crime statistics, new migration and immigration trends, and symbolic references to America as the promised land of opportunity were woven into a cautionary tale about the exceptional threat black people posed to modern urban society. Excessive arrest rates and overrepresentation in Northern prisons were seen by many whites - liberals and conservatives, Northerners and Southerners - as indisputable proof of blacks' inferiority. In the heyday of "separate but equal", what else but pathology could explain black failure in the "land of opportunity"? The idea of black criminality was crucial to the making of modern urban America, as were African Americans' own ideas about race and crime.

Chronicling the emergence of deeply embedded notions of black people as a dangerous race of criminals by explicit contrast to working-class whites and European immigrants, this fascinating book reveals the influence such ideas have had on urban development and social policies.

©2010 Khalil Gibran Muhammad (P)2017 Tantor

Critic reviews

"This important book is a vital contribution to our understanding of the role of racism in American society." (Aldon D. Morris, author of The Origins of the Civil Rights Movement)

Excellent Book

The Condemnation of Blackness was a excellent read with thorough research that outline how was race has been a problem in America. Numbers do not lie and Profosser Muhammad pointed that out clearly using statistical date.

You would love it

Nice work, well needed should be apart of everyone canons. Keep you knowledgeable of our history

A must read for modern police & politicians

A tremendous, clinical analysis that should be taught in high school, training academies and by every political institution in the country.

Flawlessly researched and documented

This book and even the narration was an example of flawless execution on a very difficult topic. The only thing the author could have improved upon would have been him relating how it all tied in today a bit more but that probably would have made the book too long. All in all I learned quite a bit from it.

Must read book to understand blackness in America

I appreciate the effort and historical context Dr.Muhammad laid out for every single argument he made. Not only did he back all the stories with both sides of the argument but he made sure to explain why he believed one is wrong & the other right. The objectivity of the work is also amazing.